Re: Auxlangs in conworlds, was Re: The Great Sundering

Hallo!

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 16:00:11 EST,
Doug Dee <AmateurLinguist@...> wrote:

> In a message dated 11/27/2003 3:13:19 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> elemtilas@YAHOO.COM writes:
>
>
> >I am
> >entertaining the idea of creating an IB auxlang.
> >But I think the idea is a nonstarter in IB, which
> >is a truly international and polyglot place. Even
> >the Americans *there* speak more than one
> >language.
>
>
> I would think that would make them *more* likely to adopt an auxlang.
> *Here*, one obstacle to a constructed auxlang is that a handful of
> very widely
> spoken natlangs (of which English is currently the most prominent)
> have been
> available for internatinal communication.  If no language in IB has
> the status that
> English has *here*, there will be more need and opportunity for a
> contructed
> auxlang.
I agree.  It becomes evident when one looks at when auxlanging
was popular *here*, and compares that to the rises and falls of
internationally dominant natlangs.  Most auxlangs were proposed
when there was no dominant language.  The first wave of auxlanging
(the philosophical languages) was in the 17th century, when Latin
had fallen in decline and French had not yet established itself
as language of international communication.  When French became
the dominant language during the reign of Louis XIV, only few
new auxlangs were proposed, and the old philosophical languages
largely forgotten.  The second wave of auxlanging (Volapük,
Esperanto, Ido and all the other euroclone IALs) was in the
late 19th and early 20th century.  At that time, French was
in decline, and the ascendancy of English yet to come.
With the rise of English as world language, the auxlang movement
lost momentum again.

So with the lack of a dominant international language,
Ill Bethisad ought to be a fertile ground for auxlangs.
They probably haven't settled on ONE auxlang, though.

Greetings,

Jörg.

Replies